Thursday, January 29, 2009

Yipppee

I wasn't going to post this then decided that most of my blog is just rambling so I might as well go ahead lol

AND, how sad is it that I've used "Yippeeee" so many times as a title, that spell check auto fills in the word for me? ha!

I went to see a house today. It might be THE house. I want one of two types of house, a pretty brick two story thing (and I really can't afford that unless the market goes up like 1500 points) or a 1950/60 something ranch. There is one 50/60 style I really like, half of it is red brick, the other half is stone. It normally has a carport. It has old house hardwood, way better than new house hardwood. Plus it has a certain type of roof. I call it a hat, dumb, but ya, I call it a hat. It does afterall have a brim! Anyhoo, the difference between the two styles of house? Almost 100K.

Sooooo I have my search set, certain zip code, 2 baths. I get all sorts of nice two story brick houses popping up. Well yesterday I did a search and forgot to put in the bath restriction.

And low and behold, one of those ranch houses pops up. EXACTLY what I want.

I mean exactly what I wanted on the outside, down to the yard type.

But the kicker is, it is 1.5 baths. A typical house in this area in the 40's is my current house, 3 bed, 1 bath. Then in the 50's they graduated to the 1.5 bath idea. They put a half bath on the master bedroom and put the full bath in the hall. Because the of the age of the house, the one I like so much is a 1.5 bath.

Now if it were just Natalie and Me, 1.5 would be fine. But I have Dad to consider. So I decide to try not to like it too much until I go see it.

I loooove it. Love love love. Normally when I look at a house, there are 15-20 things that I don't like and I know I can fix. This house has 2. To get the negatives out of the way, the cabinets are in perfect condition, but are the 19whatever original cabinets. They are an orangish brown wood. The same cabinets that I have in my house (except mine were beat up). I am not a big fan of varnished stuff like that. But I have watched enough HGTV to know that you pick out a speckled granite that goes with the almost new black appliances and you stain your cabinets to match part of the speckle. Easy smeezy.

The other thing I do not like it there are no overhead lights in the living room. But the fantastic thing is, I have these wonderful attached things called hands. They can open a magical book called the yellow pages and call someone to come and wire an overhead light. TADA!

So let's move to the pros
Hardwood
Hardwood (ok it IS worthy of two lines. Hardwood everywhere. Finished beautifully in the foyer, hall and bedrooms. Unknown condition under the carpet but the bedrooms give you a good idea how it is all is.
The hall bath is HGTV remodeled. Granite countertops. The dark metal curved looking fixtures. Slate floor. Pretty dark stained cabinet. Nice!
The half bath. Totally gutted and replaced with all white stuff. It is a little bathroom for sure but they spent a little extra cash with a fancier toilet and sink.
the 900 SF den. NINE HUNDRED sf den. My current house is 1040 SF. The den is almost the size of my house?!?!
A 10 X 10 laundry room in the basement. It is rough but it reeks potential. With a special pump I can have another bath down there.
Another basement area, about 10 X 15 or so that could be converted to another room.
A one car stall in the basement. To go with the 2 car carport at the top.
A brand new charcoal gray 3 dimensional shingle roof. Shaped like a hat.
New vinyl soffits. New gutters.
A wooden playset in the backyard
Like new black appliances in the kitchen
Linoleum in the kitchen. I know for some this is a no no but I can't stand tile. I hate it. It is cold and it cracks. You have to tip toe around on it.
Two fireplaces. Now one is pretty, one isn't. But I don't mind the not as pretty one. Shoot I didn't even put it on the negative list!
A flat yard that slightly slopes on the sides. In TN, we have hills everywhere. This yard is easy mowed.
They have seashells in the flower bed. I have seashells in my flower bed. See? It is so meant to be!

I am calling the bank in the morning to get any pre-approval type stuff I need. Dad needs to go see it. I don't want to go with him because he is so negative about house hunting. If he thinks he can "stand it" I'll be making an offer contingent on financing. My little house is being rented too. Then we'll get the condo on the market and we'll be settled for a long long time :)

3 comments:

chinamom said...

Sooooooooooo are you getting the house?

jeannine and sophie

Kim said...

Probably not, Dad is being a total poo-head about it. :(

RamblingMother said...

hope it goes well.